Hulk Hogan was the subject of the FOX News documentary show "OBJECTified" (credit to Wrestling Inc) over the weekend and opened up about the scandal he faced when a sex tape in which he was featured was leaked by the website Gawker. Hogan infamously used a racial slur during the tape, the publication of which led to Hogan being fired from the WWE.
Hogan said when he found out the Gawker story was being released, he decided to be proactive and tell the WWE before it hit the newswire. He thought that might buy him some goodwill. It did not.
“When I heard this was going to happen, I called them on a Thursday or a Friday," explained Hogan. "As I hung up the phone that night, they fired me in the morning. It really caught me off guard, I didn’t expect it because the WWE knows who I am. I’m not that person, that’s not who I am and that’s not what I do.”
Hogan was asked if he'd still be using that particular portion of his vocabulary, had he not been outed. Hogan replied, “No. I tried to clean up my whole life. I made a whole switch, almost a shift from being negative… I moved forward so I’m in check with myself.”
Hogan continued: “As far as the black community and using that word, it’s not part of who I am now. It’s not part of my language because I understand how powerful words are. You know, growing up in South Tampa where we came from, it was a situation where when you played baseball and basketball and ran around in South Tampa, it was just common knowledge 45 – 50 years ago [that people said that word], but it’s not that way anymore.”
There have been rumors that Hogan might be eventually be welcomed back into the WWE, but when asked in the documentary Hogan doesn't seem so confident: "I'm not sure. ... I think they did what was best for business," he said. "They were worried about losing sponsors and network support."
